This is very good news, the last thing we want to see is another top coach with throat cancer.

Doc Rivers returned to the Celtics practice today and said that biopsies taken during his Sunday surgery to relieve pressure on his vocal chords (that kept him out of practice Monday) came back as benign. He is cancer free, he told the Associated Press.

“They found cancerous lesions,” Rivers said after the team conducted an open practice for season ticket holders. “They had to make sure there was nothing there, and there was nothing, so I’m good. I’m going to be around for a while it looks like.”

Rivers said coaches are more susceptible to this because they yell so much. Nuggets coach George Karl missed the second half of last season and the playoffs undergoing treatment for throat cancer. He is recovered and is back coaching in Denver.

He will be coaching the team Wednesday night in an exhibition game against the Nets.